Bodhgaya

A popular destination for foreign visitors, Bodhgaya is a religious site and place of pilgrimage associated with Mahatma Buddha. He is said to have obtained enlightenment here which makes it the most important of the four main pilgrimage sites related to the life of Gautama Buddha. For Buddhists the other three sites are Kushinagar, Lumbini, and Sarnath.
Bodhgaya can be reached by alighting at Bodhgaya International Airport in Gaya city and travelling the short distance on the highway connecting Gaya and Bodhgaya. It can also be reached by road from Patna and Varanasi.
The main temple complex of Mahabodhi temple, houses the famous Mahabodhi stupa, a diamond throne and the holy Bodhi Tree under which the Buddha gained enlightenment. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. As Bodhgaya is important to Buddhists all over the world, there are also temples or monasteries built by many other nations with a Buddhist tradition. Some are the Thai Monastery, 80-foot Buddha Statue and Japanese temple.

Best time to visit: October to March
Languages Spoken: Hindi, Urdu, Bhojpuri, Maithili
Climate: Bodhgaya lies in the humid subtropical zone, and experiences hot summers from March to June, the monsoon from July to October and mild winters from November to February.
Pilgrimage sites: Mahabodhi Temple, Thai Monastery, 80-foot Buddha Statue, Japanese temple.
Places of interest: Bodhgaya Multimedia Museum, Barabar Caves

Trip to Gaya from New Delhi within 14 hrs

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Out of my many Road Trip today I will describe about one of the tour that I had under taken on 4th April, 2012 from Delhi to Bodh Gaya in 14 hours and the total distance is 1063 Kms and I would like to emphasis about the condition of the National Highway 2 which connects Delhi to Calcutta and my journey was upto Barhi a small town in Bihar(on NH-2) and also a border of Jharkhand.

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Motorbiking from Gurgaon to Gaya (Bihar)

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The first step is always the hardest step. Thankfully one of my flatmate Vikas agreed to come with me (on his Avenger !! ) upto Agra to see the Taj and then he would return back to Gurgaon .
We didn’t pick the Yamuna expressway since if you are planning to go Agra from Gurgaon, taking AH1/NH2 through the Sohna Road is always a better option. It prevents you from passing through Delhi traffic, plus no tolls to pay like that on Yamuna Expressway ( and no more tyre bursts !!). The road is pretty good upto Palwal, 50km from Gurgaon, from there AH1 meets NH2 which directly takes you to Agra. Although it was mid April, somehow it started raining around 7 AM and weather became very pleasant, what else a rider could ask for !!

We stopped for chai sutta on two occasions and reached Agra by 10 AM. After entering the Agra city , it took us around 1.5 hrs to reach the Taj because of small roads and heavy traffic although it was only 13 kms from the highway. Anyways seeing the magnificent Taj and Agra fort was quite refreshing. Now my roomy Vikas had to go back to Gurgaon and I had to cover the rest part of my journey alone. I was up for it.

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